Top Posts & Pages

Archives

Categories

Don’t you just love it when you go into a supermarket you don’t usually go to and find a bunch of gf products you have never seen before? Well that has just happened to me! I popped into a Tesco store for 1 thing and left with 3 bags full of gluten free goodness.

You may have already tried these beauties but if not I wanted to give you my opinion on them.

BFree Fajitas. I think we’ve all seen the BFree wraps… and I think these are exactly the same except they come with 2 sachets of salsa and a fajita herb mix.
By golly are they yummy! So so yummy!
It’s lovely to be able to buy something that is available to everyone else, and we all know that finding sauces can be difficult.

I do have to say there is one negative in my opinion and that is the price. £5.50 for the pack of 6 fajitas.

It has been a while since I have written a blog post [hides face with hands]. I suppose life has just got in the way! I brought my first home last year which needed (a lot of) work and that kept me busy for a while. I have been taking photographs constantly of potential posts but then I just don’t get round to it! Terrible I know and to add to being a busy bee I am also expecting my first child! – so please bare with me. I have a feeling I will have quite a bit to blog about soon.

Off the top of my head there are two things I would like to share with you. Firstly, I finally managed to get a gluten free wrap from Costa Coffee – score! Although this was at Christmas so they only had turkey and cranberry which is a bit of a bummer… oh and it cost about a zillion pound, but you can’t really complain when you’re out shopping and can just grab a quick snack for once. It felt like a huge triumph!

I would also like to share with you another triumph I had when out shopping. I was at Dunelm-mill just after Christmas (grabbing some bargains) with the mother when she decided she needed to grab some food from the café. I gave her the usual ‘are you serious’ look of death – which usually means I am starving and if she eats in front of me things are going to get very ugly! To my surprise when we asked at the till if there was anything gluten free, they actually knew what gluten free was! and better still could read out of a book what they were cooking today that was gluten free. Well I was a tad shocked. They had a egg cob, soups of the day and the usual jacket potatoes, biscuits and even…..cake! Actual free cake – not these little cherry bakewell’s that you can buy in your local supermarket. and by-George it was bloomin’ gorgeous. Along with the cake I also had a jacket potato which was presented beautifully – its hard to believe this was just a little café within a retail store! I would recommend you check them out if you have one near you.

So… as I am now expecting, I am faced with new challenges with Coeliac Disease. I have had to step it up a notch on the vitamins and calcium, my back pain has become so intense and I just want to eat any food in sight – which of course, I can’t do. Due to Coeliac Disease not allowing me to absorb all the nutrients I need; I will be having a few extra scans to keep an eye on baby’s growth – but I am confident that everything is good 🙂 I will keep you posted on updates with Coeliac Disease during pregnancy!

Exciting news! There are even more products coming to our shelves very soon thanks to UDI’s!

I am oober excited to share with you a few of these products.

The coming soon products in which I have tested with my very professional taste buds are…
GF Milk Chocolate Wafers
GF Blueberry Muffins
GF seeded Bagels

I had my tasting hat on and stuck in immediately!

First up to try had to be the chocolate wafers – who doesn’t want to try chocolate wafers?

I have to say that these were absolutely delicious. Wafers can sometimes be a little dry… but not these ones. I feel they had the right consistency of chocolate and wafer. They were that nice that I accidentally ate them all in one sitting :O (and I could have eaten more)

When are these coming out??? I neeeeeed more

So after trying the wafers I decided to try the muffins (you may get the impression that I prefer sweet to savour – and you would be right). Now, this may surprise you but I have never tried a blueberry muffin. I have only ever eaten chocolate or choc chic muffins. The reason being, I’m not a fan of fruit in my cakes – FACT.

By the way I would like to point out that I did not eat the whole box of wafers and then the muffins straight away. It was at least the next day 🙂
So, I was in a predicament. I had eaten my very healthy dinner and had nothing to snack on afterwards 😦 boohoo for me. I needed something sweet and spotted the blueberry muffins and thought “what the heck!” If I really don’t like the blueberry’s I will just pick them out.

So I opened the packet and stared in amazement at this ball of fluffy sweetness… OK so I didn’t do that. I pretty much just shoved it in my face… and then chewed.

I was actually amazed that I really enjoyed it. The cake was fluffy and light yet full of flavour and the blueberry’s were not overpowering whilst still tastey. I am rather stubborn when it comes to food. If I don’t think I will like it I will never try it. In this case I am glad I proved myself wrong and it’s even more surprising that I would actually buy these over chocolate muffins! Well done UDI’s you have converted me!

The final product I tried was the seeded bagels.

It was probably a bad time to try these as I was due to go shopping and had nothing to eat with the bagels other than butter. So I decided to toast them and smother them in butter.

Unfortunately, I have to say that these are not to my taste – mainly because there was no flavour to them and seemed rather dry. This is probably my fault due to the lack of an interesting topper. Whilst eating them I did think to myself that they would taste rather nice with some lovely jam. I much prefer their cinnamon bagels but saying that. Everyone’s taste is completely different and I am sure there will be many people out there who will enjoy them – I know my mother does!

Last night I had the urge for cheesy potatoes! I didn’t fancy mash though so I decided to make a cheesy potato bake – however, I didn’t have many ingredients in that would normally be needed in a cheesy bake; for example cream and onions. So I got out what I did have and started cooking and it tasted yummy! You don’t have to go out and buy a load of ingredients just for one meal.

So here it is… (sorry for the poor quality in photography, camera wasn’t near me when I decided to take the photo’s DOH!)

Firstly cut your potatoes into thin slices – I used baby potatoes as that’s what I had in the cupboard. Place potatoes into a pan of water and simmer for 10 minutes and then drain. Place 1 Tbsp of oil (I used sunflower oil) into the pan of potatoes and stir so that the oil is evenly placed.

Prepare your salmon fillets. Place your salmon into lightly wrapped tin foil and pour a tiny bit of water on then so that they do not dry out. Place them to one side.
Grease your baking dish or dishes will butter and place a thin layer of potatoes. Add a few small sprinkles of butter and grate some cheese over the top.

Then repeat this method one more time so that you have two layers.

Place your baking dish into a pre-heated oven of 200 degrees along with your salmon. Leave for approximately 20-25 minutes depending on the cooking time of your salmon.

Place the mixed vegetables into boiling water and simmer for 2-5 minutes covered. The time for your vegetables will depend on the brand used – follow the instructions on the packaging.

As one of 100 nominated charities in the BACS Direct Debit Campaign, The Big Break 2014, Coeliac UK are in with a chance of winning a £2,000 charity donation.

They need our help so get your voting fingers out! All you have to do is follow this link and vote… simples!

If you have read my pages and my back story you will know how much good Coeliac UK has done and will do in future for people with Coeliac Disease. They need all the support they can get to create awareness and help suffers!

So last night I went out to a local pub for a meal to celebrate my nieces 1st birthday. I had been there a few times before and therefore knew that there would be something on the menu for me to eat.

I think this was the worst restaurant I have been to since I have been diagnosed with Coeliac Disease. I actually feel discriminated against! I will tell you the shocking story but first I will name and shame the establishment ‘St Bernards Grange’ in Birmingham – a part of All-Inns group.

Whilst there was no gluten free options on the menu, nor was there any type of dietary food symbols (apart from vegetarian) I spotted a few things that I could eat; such as steak, chicken and salad. I fancied the roast chicken but it came with gravy so I asked the waiter to check with the chef whether it was gluten free or not. When the waiter returned he explained that the chef said it wasn’t gluten free and nothing on the menu was! So I sad there – in shock that in this day and age I can go to a restaurant and not be able to eat anything on the menu. Luckily I was with…THE MOTHER! My mom works in catering and knows very well what I could have had on the menu so approached the waiter and asked to see the chef, in the meantime a lovely waitress agreed to sit down with me and look at the menu to see what I could have. After deciding on steak she went to the chef and asked if he could cook me a steak, or chicken separately.

When the waitress returned… you will never guess what. The chef refused! I understand that they would have to cautious of contamination but to flat-out refuse is ridiculous. Especially since there are vegetarian options on the menu which they would have to keep separate and away from contamination – so I know it could have been done! Also, the chef could have at any point came out to speak to me about why he had refused but of corse he didn’t.

I am livid! I feel discriminated against. How can they refuse to cook for someone who has special dietary needs? I don’t think the chef, or the staff even had a clue what gluten free actually is – I got asked if I could eat potatoes???? It should be compulsory that all people working in a food environment are educated on the different dietary needs! Ridiculous!

In the end I managed to get a piece of salmon and salad, so after all that whohar I could actually have 1 thing on the menu! Yes I am having a little rant about the lack of gluten free food but the whole meal was a nightmare. They kept the kids waiting for a long time for their puddings and then brought them out with all our dinner plates still on the table (They were still there when we left). We asked for our cake and candles to be brought out – which didn’t happen. We had to light it ourselves after waiting for half an hour.

I am so disappointed and therefore will not be going there EVER again! and neither will any of my family!

After a succesful launch into selected shops this year, Starbucks have announced that they will now be placing their gluten free veggie good houmous wrap into 750 of their stores.

As I posted yesterday about the Costa wrap – this is yet another big Coeliac deal! The big companies are now hearing us – and why shouldn’t they? The number of people on a gluten free diet in the UK is growing rapidly. We are a growing market and every company should be seeing the potential in catering to our needs.

After hearing about Starbucks new launch, I had a look at their menu and was surprised to find many gluten free items – including cake!. It’s always great to make little discoveries like this but I am rather annoyed that it has taken this long for me to find it! I have made a list below of all the food at Starbucks which is made with gluten free ingredients – Enjoy x